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Other races in Cerilia

So I've been interested in Birthright from a distance for quite some time, and I'm finally considering running a campaign in it at some point in the near future. The issue is, my group tends to really like "exotic" races, and this is one thing Birthright seems to lack. Are there any articles or guides for modifying the setting to incorporate races like Dragonborn, Gith, Thri-Kreen, Warforged, etc.? Any advice for how a DM would best do so?

So I've been interested in Birthright from a distance for quite some time, and I'm finally considering running a campaign in it at some point in the near future. The issue is, my group tends to really like "exotic" races, and this is one thing Birthright seems to lack. Are there any articles or guides for modifying the setting to incorporate races like Dragonborn, Gith, Thri-Kreen, Warforged, etc.? Any advice for how a DM would best do so?

if they always have played exotic races, then the exotic races would be normal by now, meaning playing a human is quite exotic then

but you can always throw in an accident where a PC gets infected by an Azrai bloodline and the PC gets corrupted (mentally and visibly)

In any case, in my own time I thought of some possible justifications for other races - sleeping on the subject, I decided any nonhuman races should at least be rare in Cerilia, on the level of Halflings at minimum and more often on the level of Elves and Dwarves. Anyway, surprisingly, one of the ones that came to me most easily was the mantis-like Thri-Kreen.

Any attempt to make Thri-Kreen a player race must, of course, look to Dark Sun for inspiration. In that setting, they were desert nomads with a strong tribal culture and racial memory, making them valuable allies for adventurers in spite of their completely alien mindsets. It also solidified the race's connection to desert. In Birthright, they could be easily located in the arid plains and steppes of Khinasi, where most humans regard them as little more than pack animals in spite of their simple weapons and tools. Of course, this isn't the case at all - Thri-Kreen have an advanced nomadic culture of their own, albeit one very different from the "civilized" kingdoms which dominate Cerilia. A possible campaign hook, whether there be Thri-Kreen player characters or otherwise, would be the Thri-Kreen suddenly revealing themselves to the other kingdoms to demand they stop incursion on their peoples' sovereign hunting grounds. Such a thing may very well manifest Regency in Kreen packleaders, and create a whole new wedge in Cerilia's political landscape.

Of course, psionics are also a large part of the Kreen legacy. The best way I can think to implement this is to keep it in line with Birthright's focus on bloodline powers - the strongest packleaders among the Kreen are those who manifest these strange powers through their bloodline, and it could also very well allow Kreen Regents to control Source holdings.

1. Offspring of awnsheghlien (possibly ehrsheghlien);
2. Late refugess from the shadow world/spirit world;
3. Victims of an incursion of the shadow world into Cerilia which left the inhabitants and possibly land warped;
4. People from another continent, Djapur is almost undescribed, Aduria isn't much better, the other continents are unknown, I did a small amount on stuff on 'lands of the utter west' but in practice explorers whose ship was driven far by a storm and wrecked on the shores of Cerilia could be anything you want;
5. The underdark - barely mentioned in BR aside from warlock of the stonecrowns and a few karamhul references but there's no reason it shouldn't be there;
6. Small tribes in barren places as you note with the thri-kreen.

You could if you wish throw in spelljammers and planewalkers - the latter possibly summoned by magic, or coming via the shadowworld (and possibly quite confused).

I would make the thri-kreen druids probably, but 3e psionics could work albeit make the game quite 'busy'.

The taladas boxed set (Dragonlance 2nd continent) is a great source of alternate views of the usual races if you can find it if you are interested in that sort of stuff, it has horse nomad elves, post-civilisation sidhe and pre-civilisation sidhe, minotaurs, etc.

I've always favored yuan-ti and kobolds for conniving foils to the PC's dreams of wealth and conquest. Yuan-ti could easily be a race populous in Aduria since the BoMD, with their leadership as blooded scions of Azrai.

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."- George Washington

Oddly, my biggest conceptual problem at this point is dragonborn - most races are easy enough to justify through the things Andrew listed, but dragons have such an important place in Birthright that it seems difficult to introduce a race so connected to them. I've considered taking cues from Dark Sun and Dragonlance and making them creations of an ancient wizard, but that seems like it would drive a pretty powerful wedge into the setting. Any thoughts on this?

I would tie dragon born to the dragons, either a race of servants to dragons (possibly originally a different species that were changed by a dragon), or a draconian-style twisted mockery of dragons created by a shadow-world spirit.

Or you could have them as created by dragon's dreams in the spirit world, and now fleeing the spiritworld due to the spreading taint of shadow.

With any unusual race the issue is going to be deciding why they have left their homeland to mingle with other races, how members of the other races will react to them, etc.

I would expect a fair measure of fear/concern around dragonborn due to the legendary nature of dragons.

As the running joke in an earthdawn campaign I was I used to go "it's bad luck to hit an obsidiman, you're lucky I'm respectful of the fates, it could have got unfortunate for you with your attitude otherwise..." as various people decided that, no, really, they would just leave the hulking brute alone, it would be bad luck to teach it some manners.

So, if one wanted to do thri-kreen in BR, one of the nice flavourful ways to introduce them would be to have an awnshegh from which they are derived. You could do that in any number of ways, but I'm picturing a kind of "queen mother" of a "swarm" sort of deal in Khinasi desert. (The Tarvan Waste seems apt.) Queen Mantis. The Green Mother. The Sand Widow. (A references to the sexual cannibalism of the preying mantis, which could also be a rather interesting plot/character issue. She devours her lovers, committing an act of bizarre bloodtheft.)

That would make all the thri-kreen scions, and there could be minor awnsheghlien within that community that were more like other insects.

The interesting question would then be whether originally the thri-kreen awnsheghlien was an insect which devoured a scion of Azrai, similar to the Sphinx, or if they were a human/sidhe/etc who became insectlike through the corruption of Azrai. The latter are often more tragic figures, while the former tend to be more bestial.

I think of some poor scion of azrai staked out in the desert to die being devoured by a colony of insects - which could of course mean that there is, or at least was, a number of awnsheghlien at the outset, with offspring then following to multiply their numbers.